State to get Skinner evidence for DNA testing

Updated 5:21 am, Thursday, July 5, 2012

In this photo taken Dec. 16, 2009, death row inmate Hank Skinner is seen in the visiting area of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Polunksy Unit.

In this photo taken Dec. 16, 2009, death row inmate Hank Skinner is seen in the visiting area of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Polunksy Unit.

Photo: Michael Graczyk

State to get Skinner evidence for DNA testing

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

LIVINGSTON - Henry Skinner is a small man with a crooked nose, acid tongue and keen mind. Convicted of fatally pummeling his lover with an ax handle and stabbing her adult sons in a 1993 New Year's Eve Texas Panhandle rampage, he has used his 17 years on death row to assail Texas' criminal justice system as "cunning and deceptive."

In a case that has become an international anti-death penalty cause célèbre, Skinner since 2001 has battled to obtain DNA testing of items he believes will clear him of the Pampa killings of Twila Busby and her sons, Randy and Elwin.

Skinner's campaign for more testing twice has prompted courts to stay his scheduled executions. His quest has been complicated by his first lawyer's decision to abandon DNA testing after examination of clothing worn by Skinner on the night of the killings revealed traces of the victims' blood.

Despite prosecutor-sanctioned testing of a few items in 2000 and a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that opened a new avenue to such testing, rape kit specimens, knives, fingernail scrapings and an apparently bloodstained windbreaker found near Busby's body still have not been examined.

All that changed last month when the Texas Attorney General's Office dropped its opposition to testing and, in tandem with Skinner's lawyers, compiled a list of more than 40 items for high-tech examination.

"This nightmare is almost over," Skinner said in a recent death-row interview. "I'm looking forward to the day I can leave. I'll either leave with a few boxes under my arm or in a box. I've already spent 18 years in hell."

Key evidence lost

The state's seeming capitulation appeared a breakthrough for Skinner, who has orchestrated a "Free Skinner" campaign through frequent prison cell pronouncements and postings on his website, "Hell Hole News."

Even as Skinner's lawyers and supporters breathed a sigh of relief, though, it once again appeared the victory may only be partial. State lawyers admit that, after a thorough search, they cannot find the windbreaker, which Skinner attorney Rob Owen called a key piece of evidence.

Owen, a University of Texas law professor currently teaching at Northwestern University Law School, said that, based on stain patterns, a forensic expert for Skinner believes the jacket likely had been worn by the killer.

Although the jacket was not introduced as evidence at Skinner's trial, legal experts said the state should have preserved the garment pending the case's final resolution. "These issues come up all the time, sometimes 10 or 15 years later," said South Texas College of Law professor Ken Williams. "It's the responsibility of the state ... to put it away in a safe somewhere."

Said Skinner: "The state has a lot of explaining to do. ...That jacket is key to everything."

Owen said the importance of the jacket may grow if tests on other items prove "less illuminating."

"The jacket appeared to have sweat stains, human hairs," Owen said. "It was a rich source of DNA that could have been tested."

Uncle implicated

Attorney general's spokeswoman Lauren Bean responded that - like his attorney in 1994 - Skinner did not seek DNA testing of the windbreaker when then-Gray County District Attorney John Mann agreed to test some unexamined items in 2000.

In his recent interview, Skinner insisted the jacket likely belonged to Busby's uncle, Robert Donnell, a man who reportedly had raped the woman and harassed her at a party the night of her death. "He was a vodka alcoholic and as mean as a snake," he said of Donnell, who died in a 1997 auto crash.

Skinner said the windbreaker was "eight sizes too big to fit me," but added, "Donnell was built like a fireplug. He was stout, wide, burly."

Suspicion against Donnell - never considered a suspect by police or prosecutors - arose through an investigation by Northwestern University journalism students. They interviewed former Pampa resident Deborah Ellis, who reported she had witnessed Donnell uncharacteristically scrubbing out his truck a week after the murders. He seemed nonchalant about the slaying of a close relative, she said.

Viewing a photograph of the now-missing windbreaker, Ellis identified the garment as having belonged to Donnell, said David Protess, a former Northwestern University professor who supervised the students. Additionally, she told students, Donnell never wore the jacket after the murders.

Protess said Ellis also told students that Donnell had threatened his wife that "if she kept yakking her mouth, he would do the same thing to her that he had done to Twila and her sons."

"One of Twila's friends told them that Twila had complained Donnell had molested her, raped her at one point," Protess said. "...Witnesses at the party told students Donnell had been making advances ... hitting on her, stalking her, harassing her. That led to her leaving the party early."

Skinner's alibi

In his recent interview, Skinner reiterated the claim that, as Busby attended the New Year's party, he lay unconscious at their shared home as a result of unwittingly consuming a vodka drink laced with codeine. He said he remained unconscious throughout the fatal attacks.

After the crimes were discovered, police found Skinner at the home of a female friend about four blocks away. The woman testified that Skinner expressed concern that he had killed Busby and threatened to harm her if she notified police.

The woman later recanted parts of her testimony, but an appeals court found the recantation unconvincing.